Task force aims to cut gun-related killing

Joint federal and state effort combines technology, education, police presence

Wednesday, January 23, 2002

BY JAMES SCOTT
Of The Post and Courier Staff

     In the wake of Saturday night's shooting deaths of a Charleston police officer and an emergency flight nurse, U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. announced Tuesday a joint federal and state program aimed at cutting down on gun-related killings in South Carolina.
     Gathering with area leaders at North Charleston City Hall, Thurmond outlined the goals of Project Cease Fire, a statewide initiative that will use new technology, increased education and police presence to try to slash the alarming rise in gun violence.
     "We want to send a message in South Carolina that if you misuse a gun, then you're done," said Thurmond, who was flanked by Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey.
     Based on the federal Safe Neighborhoods Program created last year, the new crime-fighting initiative will be spearheaded by a team of about a dozen area law enforcement officers and members of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
     The task force, which will focus on educating the public about the consequences of gun-related crimes, will be armed with better technology, including listening devices that can pinpoint gunfire to within a few hundred feet.
     Law enforcement leaders also want to speed up the time it takes between the arrest and trial of people involved in gun crimes.
     Thurmond, who noted that the public announcement of Project Cease Fire follows a difficult weekend in Charleston in which two people were slain, said the program has actually been in effect since June.
     So far, he said 107 gun-related investigations have been opened involving 126 individuals. Fifty-three of those have been charged and 14 convicted of gun crimes.
     "We must do everything we can to get weapons off the street," Summey said. "We must stop mothers from having to cry over the gravesides of their children."
     Area leaders point out that Tuesday's announcement, which was planned before the weekend shooting spree, comes at a pivotal time in South Carolina.
     Four law enforcement officers have been shot to death in the last month, beginning with an off-duty Horry County deputy who was killed in late December when he stopped to help an arguing couple. Then, on Jan. 8, two Beaufort County officers were killed in a gunfight while responding to a domestic violence call.
     The latest incident occurred Saturday night when a man, after being involved in a traffic accident, fatally shot a flight nurse, a Charleston police officer and wounded another nurse. A 19-year-old James Island man stands accused of those crimes.
     Riley, who said he has spent time talking with the families of the most recent victims, pointed to the success of operation May Day - a year-and-a-half long sting that put 34 drug dealers behind bars - as proof that Project Cease Fire could be successful.
     "The use of firearms in America has become an epidemic," said Riley. "With the tragic backdrop of this weekend, there could not be a better time for this."
     Leaders stressed that the success of the project, which will receive some of the $500 million in federal money earmarked for such programs, will be based on strong partnerships among different law enforcement agencies.
     "What's happening in our community now is unacceptable," said Solicitor Ralph Hoisington. "This is not a matter of who gets the credit and the glory. The community will get the credit and the glory if we can stop this."
     James Scott covers North Charleston. Contact him at (843) 745-5855 or jscott@postandcourier.com.

Why, yes, it is a Barrett. Now who do you suppose they plan to use it on:

Charges Dropped Against "Charleston 5"
"The court case stems from January 2000 when 130 dockworkers from International Longshoremen?s Association (ILA) Locals 1422 and 1771 in Charleston were attacked by about 600 heavily armed riot police. The longshoremen were protesting the use of nonunion labor. Police used horses and an armored vehicle to attack the workers, while helicopters circled overhead."
"Originally, State Attorney General Charlie Condon sought the indictments of nine union men for rioting. But a trial judge who watched the videotape of the conflict dropped the charges for lack of evidence. Nevertheless, Condon, a right-wing Republican, successfully obtained indictments for five men. At that time Condon said his plan for the workers was 'jail, jail, and more jail.' Condon also refused to negotiate plea bargains with the union."

More follows. No wonder people are killing cops in North Carolina as if they're Nazi occupation troops. They're acting like it....

-archy-/-

Gee, I wonder why the Charleston, SC PD just didn't deploy this thing:

Oh they will, they will. And I wonder how long until some folks there decide they really do need LAWs and RPGs as personal antiarmor weapons:

From The Sunday Times,Australia.

Police want greater seizure powers
By NICK TAYLOR

29nov98

A SENIOR WA [Western Australia] police officer has called for tougher powers to to allow them to seize proceeds of crime.

Assistant Commissioner John Standing said yesterday: "The proceeds of crime legislation is not enough. It needs to get stronger. Our legislators need to review the issue in relation to the reality of what we are trying to deal with.

"Where are all the proceeeds of crime going?

"Mostly back into the empires they (criminals) are building to facilitate further expansion of their criminal activities."

Police particularly want the tough legislation in the fight against bikies.

Presently police have to prove that property seized has been used in a crime or bought with the proceeds of crime.

They want to be able to seize goods and put the burden of proof on the criminal.

This is similar to the U.S. "RICO" act. Using this kind of law, authorities can claim your property has involvement with crime, confiscate it and make you prove otherwise at great legal expense - a complete contradiction of innocent until proven guilty.

Mr Standing was talking during a visit to Perth by Colonel Reuben Greenberg, chief of the US Charleston Police Department. Colonel Greenberg's 510 officers have tough powers to police their city of 110,000. They can strip the bikies of their bikes and clean out the furniture from a prostitute's hotel room.

His crime fighting methods reduced homicides and burglaries by 50 per cent, took 30 per cent of drug dealers off the streets and drove prostitution out of the city in three months.

His police oppose all parole and over two years successfully stopped the early release of every priosner.

"We have laws where we can seize property and it will never be seem again," Colonel Greenberg said. "We can seize houses, motorbikes, cars, offices, furniture.

"The police get that money.

"That money is turned over to the police.

"It can only be spent by the police to fight drug dealers and other crimes.

"It means they are fighting the crime fight against themselves."

When bikies take to the highways they are kept under watch and must obey every road rule or be charged and arrested.

"Their greatest dislike is the towing of their motorctycles," the [U.S.] colonel said.

"We tow them in the way most efficent and least expensive to us.

"We have them on the back of a tow truck swinging in the breeze back and forth. They hate this worse than anything else.

"Simply going to jail is unimportant to them but when their bike goes to jail that is a different thing."

The non-parole policy was developed to prevent repeat offences and a revolving prison door synrome.

"The biggest success was fronting criminals in prison before they were released on parole. We oppose parole of rapists, armed robbers and burglars because it doesn't work. We go to the parole board to try and defeat the application taking the victim with us."

He said 86 per cent of burglars in the US released early on parole are re-arrested within two years.

"We were so successful with our programme that in 1994 and 1995, 100 per cent of people were denied parole. We won every single case. If people are still in jail they are not going to be recidivists and repeat offenders. There had to be a crackdown on criminals in such a way that we prevented crime."

Sounds like the chickens in Charleston are coming home to roost. If the cops there don't want to act like Americans, there'll be no sympathy for the dead cops there from me.

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Task force aims to cut gun-related killing

Stabbings are A-OK!